The result of this more dedicated coverage to the American league is a 2-year deal (running through the 2013 and 2014 seasons including play-offs) that sees exclusive live coverage of the end-of-season Super Bowl (with Sky losing their stake in that event), joint live coverage of the ‘NFL International Series‘ games (of which two will be played this season at Wembley Stadium in London (the second of which on 27 October possibly being ill-timed based on potential local and global events)).

In addition, Channel 4 will continue their previous offering of live Sunday Night Football (that begun in 2010), weekly highlights programming, fly-on-the-wall NFL training camp documentary series Hard Knocks, and a selection of other ‘specialised programming’.

Channel 4’s sports editor Jamie Aitchison said of the coverage: “The NFL has always had a connection with the Channel 4 audience and it’s fantastic that after the return of Sunday Night Football we now can tell the story of the whole season right up to its spectacular conclusion. The Super Bowl is an iconic event and alongside the live Wembley games we can showcase the sport in all its glory. We are proud to be the NFL’s sole terrestrial partner.”

NFL UK’s managing director Alistair Kirkwood added: “We are thrilled to be announcing a new partnership with Channel 4 and very pleased with the commitment to the sport the station is demonstrating through its extensive line-up of NFL programming across a range of time slots. NFL popularity is at an all-time high in the UK as we continue to grow more fans and this new deal will help introduce even more people to our incredibly dynamic sport. Alongside our long-standing relationship with Sky Sports, who have been partners for more than two decades and will be airing approximately 70 live games again this year, we feel we have the ideal television package for the UK.”

Set to air their first game (Giants @ Cowboys) of the new deal on Sunday (8 September), Channel 4 will have headlining control of NFL coverage in the UK for the first time since 1998, and once more jumpstarts a relationship which began with a regular highlights package in 1982. Known for their coverage of less conventional topics, will the network be able to provide the secondary ‘niche’ platform for the NFL in the region that the BBC were in less of a position to offer?

Because there is no actual footage of the current NFL season on account of the franchises having only played warm-up games so far (the first competitive game of the season being the ‘kickoff’ Ravens-Broncos tie on Thursday (5 September) evening), the video below comes in a more digital guise that has been seen by the public, offering a hypothetical scenario that many neutral fans may hope occurs in real life: